Our mission at SAW is to foster conversations about this thing we all love (or love to hate): film/TV. Many of our features are designed with you in mind. Your opinions, to be more to the point. You have ’em. We want to hear ’em.
Question of the Day (QOTD) is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a film/TV-related question that we put to you, the reader. The comments section below is like the feedback box at work; except, in this example, we actually read what you write and care about what you have to say.
Welcome to New Hollywood, where every film gets three sequels, a spin-off, a remake, a legacquel, a reboot, and a one season TV series. It’s clear that studios are afraid to put money behind new, original ideas and are content to return to the IP mine.
Nostalgia is all the rage right now and why invest money into trying to get audiences to fall in love with something new when they can easily get us in theaters to watch a new Batman or Ghostbusters movie. Remember that new Spider-Man movie? What was your favorite part? I doubt it was anything new and fresh.
Look, I’m a huge nostalgia guy myself. I like watching sequels and revisiting characters I haven’t seen in years. But that doesn’t mean I want to see every film or TV series reimagined or revived for the 2020s.
So, the question I ask today is: what movie (or TV show) should never be remade, rebooted, or revived?
I mean, of course I’m going to say Back to the Future. It’s a great trilogy of films. It would be impossible to remake the film today. If it’s set in the present there is now way the new Doc Brown would pick a DeLorean to be the time machine. It would probably be a Tesla, which is fine, but it’s not as cool. And there are not many actors who have that effortless charm and comedic timing that Michael J. Fox was (and still is) capable of doing.
In fact, I’m sure a lot of classics from the ’80s will end up in the comments below. I can’t see a modern day version of The Breakfast Club working because a) do schools even give out detention still? and b) teenagers wouldn’t be able to survive all day without their phones. Even Ferris Bueller’s Day Off wouldn’t work because the rise in social media would make it extremely easy to catch Ferris in the act of skipping school.
But also, these are three films that I believe are timeless. The special effects (when relevant) still hold up and there’s no reason for any of these films to be remade when there’s nothing to be improved on. There’s nothing I would change and remaking them would be nothing but a blatant cash grab. If Hollywood wants an ’80s property to revive, might I point them to the ’80s-set Freaks & Geeks. Bring that back for a second season, ya cowards (and set it in the mid-2000s).
So what about you, folks? What film or show should remain untouched until the end of time?
I’ll see you in the trenches.
